We at solesides managed to attend two of the three shows that DJ Shadow was doing in The Netherlands.It's been a while since we met Shadow (last time was september 2009 @ Shadow's homebase in San Francisco) so it was really great to catch up on things with him and the crew. More about the conversation we had with Shadow later on, but first, let's talk about the live show:

Given it'd sound daft and just wouldn't work, most electronic / DJ acts can't and don't try to perform 'fully' or 'properly' live. But, as far as we are concerned, there are some things they can do to stand out. First, they need to tear their tracks inside out and make them perfectly reworked for a dark, sweaty room full of lunatics. Then they need a striking visual show.So here's DJ Shadow doing his 2010 summer tour, performing inside what looks like a giant paper-mache death star. It’s ‘officially’ called the ‘Shadowsphere.’ This sphere is a canvas for all sorts of sinister visuals, from an exploding Su-Bo to chainsaw-armed cartoon monsters on the rampage. Eventually the sphere opens and DJ Shadow is revealed as a type of glowing, sparkling giant getting down to business inside his small but perfectly pimped-out garden shed. Apologies if that sounds a bit rubbish, it's not meant to. It really, really worked.

As for the music? Don’t expect an old-school DJ Shadow / hip hop set: Those tracks we know and love from Endtroducing, The Private Press and The Outsider are destroyed. In the best possible way. Walkie Talkie is barely recognisable, now a cut n' paste, bass heavy monstrosity. There's a heap of drum n' bass, touches of dubstep and techno and very little in the way of hip hop. In short; the unexpected.

The new music (completed literally a week or so previous) is varied, sonically adventurous with two tunes in particular (one of them is called ‘I gotta Rock’) with a cut-up rock riff turned into a punk funk cut ‘em up and a slow melancholic ballad (which is called ‘Redeemed’) with soulful vocals sticking in the memory.

As flowers slowly grow on the stage, ‘Stem’ is welcome respite, reworked to sound a little left of centre, captivating and gorgeous. It's already an astonishing performance long before ‘High Noon’ was chosen for the encore with its guitar riff and incessant drums lifting off into a techno-heavy bass conclusion.

Shadow made promises of much more to come and since the early versions of his new music sound great already, that’s really something to look forward to.

During our conversation with Shadow, we talked about his new track “Def Surrounds Us” that’s been played on UK radio several times now. The track will be pressed on vinyl, Limited to 100 copies. At some shows (Moscow, Melt Germany, Finland and Israel) Shadow didn't perform in the sphere. This was due to various reasons which we won't bother you with. But in short the it ended up in the luggage arriving too late.

The current version of the show may be labeled as ‘version 1.0’ and is considered the small tour before there’s more new music out. They took the chance to play in different cities and stages in stead of at the usual big venues. Shadow and his crew are already thinking about doing a US tour soon. Before that, the new tracks will be made more 'live' as Shadow feels he doesn't have enough to do on stage while playing them. The (still unconfirmed) US show will be ‘version 1.5.’ When there's more new music out, this will be added to the live set which should result in ‘version 2.0.’ next year. Note that this are only plans and ideas for now, but since there’s quite some new music coming out shortly, we think it’s not far from what it all will be.

Shadow also added that ‘version 1.0’ is the first show without vinyl. This is mainly because they were already having a hard time getting the full show to work like it is now. That’s how technical it all is. Due to a deadline, they decided last minute not to include the vinyl.

No vinyl means that Shadow's complete setup is quite compact which makes travelling and transporting the show from city to city a lot easier. The 2006/Outsider tour was really big; theyeven brought that to Australia. That ended up really expensive.

Finally we can announce that mastered / early versions of the new tracks ‘Death Surrounds Us, ’ ‘Sad and Lonely,’ ‘Redeemed’ and ‘I Gotta Rock’ will be made available on DJ Shadow radio soon.

As a last note, it was cool to see that the band 'Supersister' who are from The Hague were at the The Hague gig and Shadow got to talk with them. It was really great to witness the moment that Shadow talked with the band he sampled for Organ Donor (click here). With even more to come than mentioned in this article it’s really good to see that DJ Shadow is back and he won’t be leaving soon.